


Family Bonding

by sbahjification



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Knights Mika AU, Knitting, Trans Female Character, Trans Male Character, perhaps more knitting than the average reader is accustomed to
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-24 14:11:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13215444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sbahjification/pseuds/sbahjification
Summary: Mika wants to make a gift for Arashi, but has to seek out help with the resident knitter.





	Family Bonding

**Author's Note:**

> this didn't start out as a prequel to family party, but i guess it ended as one
> 
> arashi's transness is just a fact of life; mika's is alluded to vaguely through mentions of pads

Mika sighed heavily, throwing himself onto a chair and downing half of a nearby sports drink in one go. Knights practice wasn't particularly energy-intensive, but the chaos of keeping Ritsu awake, Leo-wrangling, and coordinating six people could take a toll. Usually, like today, it worked out in the end, and they could give each other small congratulations as they made their way out and home. 

"Mika-chaaan," Arashi chimed, leaning on his lap and stealing a sip of his drink, "Are you ready?"

"Ahh, actually, I've got some stuff ta do, 'n I was gonna go check fer some teddy bears at the thrift store, so ya can go on home without me, 'n I'll be there soon as I can." Even though he got a pout in response, he gave Arashi a quick kiss, and she accepted and returned it.

"I can't wait to see what you bring home then~ Be safe, alright? And call me if you need anything." She blew one last kiss before parading out of Sena House, leaving only Mika and the titular Izumi, who had pulled out a complicated-looking knitting project of blue yarn on needles attached with a cord and begun deftly working on it, looking like he knew what he was doing. Mika in turn took out his own yarn and some regular needles and shyly made his way over. Despite the claims that Izumi was kind and caring, he did come off as short-tempered, but not to the point of being unwilling to try.

"Um, Secchan-senpai?" he tried, expecting a recoil but getting nothing of the sort, only an inquisitive noise of acknowledgement and a glance up. "Ya look real good at knittin', and I was gonna ask if ya could help me with somethin'. 'S a real bother, though, so ya don't gotta." 

"What is it?" Izumi perked up now, setting his own project down to look at Mika, who held out his pitiful beginnings of one and the pattern.

"Naru-chan was talkin' about how she doesn't got a cute coin purse to carry 'round, so I wanted ta make her one, since I know a li'l about knittin', but I think I messed up somewhere..." Izumi snatched the pattern from his hands and skimmed it, then turned it back towards him and pointed to a line at the top.

"You have the wrong type of needles. These will be useful later, but you need a pair like I have. Mine are the right size, actually, so you can borrow them." He stripped his corded needles, placing the project instead on a set of four small, rather scary-looking needles with no blunt end and setting it to the side, putting the required number of stitches onto the circular ones and handing them to Mika, then pulling his chair over.

Putting the pattern between them, Izumi started showing him how to follow it. The stitches in it were intricate and difficult for a beginner, but Mika was determined to complete it for Arashi's sake. Additionally, Izumi's teaching was a sharp contrast from his usual fed-up tone in coaching, being patient with his beginner mistakes, taking his hands gently, and showing him how to do the difficult parts.

Although his stitches were by no means perfect, with the gently correcting voice guiding him, Mika came out with a reasonably nice-looking purse shell that needed only a clasp. Izumi offered to buy it for him and sent him on his way home.

Dutifully, he searched the thrift store and the garbage for cheap abandoned teddy bears, spending the night being pestered by Arashi for his smell, patching them up, and trying to mention nothing about purses until the next day came.

After practice then, Izumi immediately dropped a surprisingly heavy shopping bag on Mika's lap, catching the attention of Arashi once more.

"Oh my, are you two having some kind of affair~? Or rather, Mika-chan, if you need pads, I can get you some, you don't have to crawl around asking boys when a cute girl is right here."

Mika gave a slight laugh and turned to the bag. "Nah, it's nothin' that serious, although I am kinda low on pads. I just asked Secchan-senpai fer somethin', is all."

"Something? You are having an affair, aren't you? Mika-chan, I'm wounded," Arashi quipped back with some crocodile tears, prompting him to wipe them with more giggles.

"Ya don't gotta worry 'bout it, I promise it's really nothin' serious. But I am gonna be late ta home today again, 'kay?"

"You're going to make my poor maiden's heart give out with all these secrets! But alright, I'll believe you. See you later~" She gave him a farewell kiss on the forehead and went on her way, leaving them alone again (save for Ritsu, who may or may not have been dead anyway). Mika shuffled through the bag, which in addition to the clasp he needed, contained knitting needles in a variety of sizes and types, pretty skeins of yarn, and other notations, not all of which he even knew what to use for. 

When Izumi had taught him yesterday, his face remained relatively flat - not scary, and approachable, but wholly neutral. Today he gave Mika a soft smile as he pulled his chair over again. Showing him how to attach the clasp was relatively simple, and he spent the rest of the time going over the miscellaneous tools, ensuring that Mika understood before moving on.

In all their testing, it ended up that Mika made himself a simple pair of arm warmers out of two of the incredibly soft skeins Izumi had thrown in there, and when he put them on and rubbed them together like a cat examining a soft pillow, the grin he threw at Izumi was returned.

"Thank ya kindly, Secchan-senpai~ Now Naru 'n I've both got somethin', 'n I promise I'll make somethin' fer ya, too."

"Haaah? You seriously never consider yourself, do you. Don't waste my gift on giving me back stuff, if I want to make it, I'll make it myself. Besides, you're a newbie, so I might not even have time to make you a Christmas gift. So, if you want to rely on me, your gift will be your big brother's assistance any time~"

"Ahaha... I guess that's a real good gift, seein' as how I've never had a brother. Still, I can get ya somethin' small, at least?"

"If you're going to insist, then you can get me something useful, like whatever lotion you use to stay so soft in the winter, or a face mask, or something. Christmas is more annoying than it's worth, so I don't care that much."

"That's a real sad view, ain't it? I can't give ya such great gifts, but maybe we can make this Christmas worth it for ya anyway?"

"Haa? Don't count on it. Don't you have somewhere to be, anyway?"

"Nnah, yer right! Sorry fer takin' up all yer time, 'n all, but thank ya for bein' such a cool big bro~" Before giving him a chance to respond, Mika was gone.

When he returned home, Arashi's eyes immediately flitted to the new arm-warmers, the slightly speckled purple-grey a noticeable offset from his usual black.

"Oh, oh my, so that's what you've been doing~ You don't have to hide your hobby from me, Izumi-chan's been knitting away nonstop for weeks." While she fired words off, she gave Mika return smooches and hugs, disposing of his bag in the corner next to a box of pads to more accurately envelop him as she poked around. "These are seriously so cute though, I'm jealous, you should make me a pair~" 

"Naru-chan, yer chokin' me again," he rasped, getting her off of him long enough to make his way to the abandoned supplies and dumping them into a box. "I actually did make ya somethin', but I'm already working on yer Chr- w- workin' on payin' fer yer Christmas gift, so I figured I could just give it to ya now."

"Oh, oh, oh, I'm so lucky," she cooed, sitting on the bed, eyes closed, toes wiggling, and hands outstretched.

"Ehehe, ya don't gotta close yer eyes or anythin'. 'S just, ya were talkin' about not havin' a cute li'l coin purse like girls carry, so I made ya one, 'n Secchan-senpai helped me out." As he spoke, he deposited the purse into her hands, and she opened it up to examine it, outside ("Oh my god, Mika-chan, it's so cute") and inside ("You even put a candy in it~?"), before tugging him onto the bed in one of her signature bear hugs. 

This time, he didn't push her off, his breathing intact and the hug his reward, and he returned it gladly, snuggling into her chest. How fortunate he was, he considered, to be able to sleep in the arms of such a cute girl every night, to have had such good luck in the quest to make her smile that he would accomplish the rare feat of bonding with a man, to have accomplished something of his own skill and merit.

When he kissed Arashi, he tasted the beauty of being alive on her lips.


End file.
